”Queer the Night” Rally in New Zealand’s Capital

”Queer the Night” Rally in New Zealand’s Capital

Around 400 people turned out last night to march through downtown Wellington in response to recent attacks and harassment of gay and trans members of the community. Brendan Goudswaard, also known as Ellie Kat (Miss Drag Wellington 2007, pictured wearing red and white), was bashed by three men back in February while walking home one night.

The march wound from Waitangi Park to the heart of Cuba Street, led by by a bevy of local LGBT entertainers and a banner appropriately decked out with tons of f$%king sequins. Once at Cuba the organizers announced that this was just the beginning of a queer activist revival in the nation’s capital, inviting all comers to a public meeting next Thursday to get involved.

Then followed several rousing speeches by local community organizers, including Green MP Kevin Hague, the self-proclaimed “gayest man in Parliament” (Chris Carter, Charles Chauvel and Grant Robertson have thus far not contested this), and the night wound down with a charming blend of live acoustic music and lip-sync performances from Ellie Kat and Felicity Frockaccino.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 10th, 2011 at 3:37 am and is filed under Drag & Trans, Politics & Activism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.